Far from lonely at the top

After the past two gruelling years, a party is just what Lonely Planet co-founder Maureen Wheeler needed.

This month, the Melbourne-based travel publishing company celebrates its 30th birthday, marking the occasion with parties here and at its offices in London, Paris and San Francisco.

In October 1973, Maureen and Tony Wheeler published their first travel guide, Across Asia on the Cheap, which they wrote from their tiny bed-sitter in Sydney.

Advertisement

Based on their six-month journey as newlyweds from London to Australia, the simple guide, costing $1.80, sold 8000 copies, inspiring the pair to write another.

Thirty years on, the Wheelers head the world's biggest independent travel publisher, which has printed more than 54 million copies of its 600 guides in 17 languages and has $85 million annual turnover.

But the past two years - starting with September 11 and continuing with the Bali attacks, SARS outbreaks and the Iraq war - have punished the company, as Ms Wheeler, 53, readily admitted yesterday.

"Although we had it hard in the early days, when it's just the two of you it's no big deal," she said. "But in the past two years we've had to lay off about 110 people (leaving about 400 staff worldwide), and that's much harder to handle."

Although the travel industry is still struggling, Ms Wheeler said she was hopeful that a forthcoming series on pay-TV and a relaunch of Lonely Planet titles in January would help the company begin to recover.

During the 1980s and '90s, Ms Wheeler said they had some "amazing, insane" offers from bigger publishers and even the odd billionaire (Microsoft's Bill Gates), but had always refused.

"Of course, in the last couple of years when things got hard no one's been offering," she said. "But no, we've never really been tempted. It's been too exciting to be in control and see the business grow."

The Wheelers arrived in Australia in December 1972, having convinced some New Zealanders to take them on board their small sloop in Bali.

Despite being broke with no visas, Ms Wheeler remembers receiving a warm welcome at Exmouth, WA, which she said made her even sadder about the way Australia greeted asylum seekers arriving on boats today.

"I find it really hard to believe that the majority of Australians, who were so welcoming... now want people locked up... and treated as criminals," she said.